What does Luther mean by saying that Christian righteousness is a “passive” rather than an “active” righteousness?
When Luther makes this distinction we must realize that he is also dealing amongst the backdrop of Law and Gospel. With this in mind it seems that an active righteousness is one that a person does primarily in the world in relation to the Law i.e. the Ten Commandments. Of course this becomes a loaded statement especially when thinking of this as something that someone simply does. The word active itself lends to a physical motion forward. With this said we can see some insight into what Luther is bringing to light here. An active type of righteousness can be seen as doing “good works” in order to appear righteousness. This as most who have read Luther know to be the antithesis of what is trying to work away from. For if we are a student of Church history even in the least expense we know that in order to make satisfaction for sins one first must know or be aware of their sins, seek confession and then pay penance for their sins. In result the way to forgiveness and ultimately freeing oneself from the bondage of the Devil and sin is to seek out an active way to turn wrong to right. This notion of penance and thus the act of forgiveness plagued Luther as a young Augustinian monk. We can see this even when Christ is challenging the local Jewish authorities in that he recognizes that their works are done for one’s own honor rather than for the honor and love of God. When contrasting this a passive righteousness we can see that when reverting back to being saved by grace alone that righteousness is passive. That in which we have no power to make ourselves right in the eyes of God, but the good news here is that Christ died for our sins and thus by this act we are saved not by our own actions but that of the precious blood of the lamb.
Peace,
Jason
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